George Carlin is one of my personal hero’s in comedy, and writing a paper in his honor, is a perfect end to this semester. To most he was a button pushing, comedic genius, and to others he was extremely offensive. In my opinion, he was one of the most important and influential comedians of his time. He spoke of broken systems and crooked religions, that most usually tried to ignore, but he forced a spot light to be pointed at major issues of the United States. His comedy lives on, even after his death, and will continue to be a door opening for future dark comedians.
George Denis Patrick Carlin, was born May 12, 1937, in Manhattan, New York. His father was in advertising and his mother was an immigrant from Ireland. His parents divorced when he was an infant, leaving his mother to raise two young boys on her own. His mother did her best, but George caused much turmoil in their lives, running away from home often.
He was raised as a Roman Catholic, and stemmed his negative feelings towards the church from his experiences as an altar boy. He attended parochial school, and dropped out of high school after only three semesters at the age of fifteen. He seems that he was destined to go against the common beliefs.
Carlin enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the age of seventeen. He served as a radar technician, while earning his high school equivalency and disk jockeying at a local radio station. During his time serving our country, he was court-martialed three times, among other looked down upon actions. This series of events, eventually led to his early discharge in July of 1957.
Jack Burns became his sidekick while working at a Fort Worth, Texas radio station in 1959. They formed a comedy duo show called the Wright Brothers, performing in local coffee shops, and a year later decided to give Hollywood a try. Once there, they were discovered by the great Lenny Bruce, who landed them an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. A legend was born! During this time is when he also met his first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, and they were married in 1961 at her parents’ home in Ohio. They had one child together, which would be his only child that he would have, in 1963 named Kelly. Carlin and his wife were known for being big partiers, and unfortunately Kelly later published a book after he died, telling about some of the horror stories she lived with Carlin as her father. He loved his wife very much, and they were married for thirty-five years, until her death from liver cancer in 1997. Something I found very sweet, was that he had one demand while on the set of Dogma, he wanted to wear a bandage on his finger to cover the wedding band that he wasn’t ready to take off yet. That is true love and extremely hard to find in the newer generation. He did marry one more time in 1998, her name was Sally Wade (a comedy writer), and they were married until his death in 2008.
Carlin appeared on the Tonight Show 130 times and the Merv Griffin Show 29 times. He was eventually a solo act, and he can give thanks in part to his many talk show appearances over the years, that he landed a major gig on the Las Vegas circuit throughout the 1960’s. He was also a frequent fill-in host for Johnny Carson multiple times, portraying himself at this time as a clean cut, conventional comedian. Much different than the way I witnessed him many years later! His debut album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons”, was released in 1967 consisting of a soft politically correct comedy.
In the 1970’s he decided to hire talent managers, Jeff Wald and Ron Deblasio, to help him reinvent his image to match the new comedic act that he was planning. This new comedy would touch on the topics that most weren’t brave enough to have an opinion about, like politics, religion, drugs, the failures of humanity, and the right to the freedom of speech. He was one of the most influential comedians of his time, and he made people think about the things they wanted to avoid. His album “FM and AM” helped him cross over from mainstream to counterculture comedy.
July 21, 1972 may have been one of the best days of his career, and sparked a major case in the Supreme Court about what can and can’t be broadcast during certain times of the day. He was arrested for violating obscenity laws after performing his “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine, which became one of his most infamous shows of his career. “Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that’ll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war”, the words that rocked the nation into a frenzy. This was, in my opinion, just another genius moment of his career and he was on the road to opinion changing success.
Carlin made history again on October 11, 1975, hosting the first episode of the iconic script comedy show, Saturday Night Live. This was the only time, in the history of SNL that the host did not participate in any sketches. All of this came at Carlin’s personal request, but in later years he participated when he hosted.
HBO and Carlin had a thirty year, long collaboration throughout his career. His first special on the network, On Location: George Carlin at USC, occurred in 1977. This show was his comeback after taking a few years off due to health reasons, including his first heart attack. He had a total of fourteen specials with HBO, and always kept a strong relationship with them throughout the years. His final show with HBO, It’s Bad For Ya, was released in 2008, the same year he passed away.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, Carlin worked more with mainstream Hollywood, starring in multiple movie and television roles. He appeared in the box office hit, Outrageous Fortune (which was also his first major supporting role in a film); the cult classic, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure; and even had a much more serious role in, Prince of Tides. Children in the nineties generation would remember him playing the Conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, for most of the decade, until he was replaced by Alec Baldwin in 1998. His self-named show, The George Carlin Show, ran for twenty-seven episodes, proving to be another hit on his list. The man really could do just about anything, and always managed to keep getting better.
As I have mentioned more than once in this paper, George Carlin had many different people he did collaborations with, but I have to say the best was the work he did with another one of my favorites, Kevin Smith. Smith cast Carlin in his 1999 film Dogma, to play Cardinal Glick, the satirical Catholic Priest trying to promote the new Buddy Christ and a more pop culture friendly type of Catholic religion. This character was hilarious and I am sure it gained him a few death threats, along with the many that Kevin Smith received for making a spoof movie about the story of Jesus. This film is in my top five favorite movies, and it was the first of three that Smith and Carlin worked on together. Carlin once asked Smith to write him his dream role, “Just do me a favor: Write me my dream role one day. I wanna play a priest who strangles children”, but unfortunately they ran out of time for this part to be created. Kevin Smith once quoted, “He was, and will likely remain, the smartest man I ever met. But really, he was much more than just a person. Without hint of hyperbole, I can say he was a God, a God who cussed.” One again, proves what this man was truly capable of and how much his dark comedy reached people, it was a dream come true for Smith to work with Carlin.
Carlin spoke often of his cocaine and alcohol use in his acts, and eventually decided to check himself in to a rehab in 2004. He wasn’t forced by anyone to go, but had just decided it wasn’t the way he wanted to live anymore. Recently he had lost his show in Vegas due to an argument with fans in the audience. He stayed sober until his death, but by the time he quit he had already done too much damage to his body, and his health issues would continue until his death.
The legendary comedian dabbled with writing books throughout his half a century career as something else to add to his list of achievements. His first hardcover book that was published, Brain Droppings, spent forty weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Before his death, he had been working on his autobiography, but he wasn’t able to finish it before he died. A friend of his that had been collaborating with him on it, published the edited copy with the fitting title of Last Words, in 2009. His words will forever live on!
Carlin was honored with many important awards, even being named the second place spot on Comedy Central’s Top 100 Comics of All Time, after Richard Pryor. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards. When he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, he insisted on it being placed in front of the radio station KDAY, paying tribute where he got his start in Hollywood. He also became the first posthumous honoree for the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, four months after his death.
At the age of seventy-one, on June 22, 2008, Carlin passed away from heart failure. Many around America, felt a huge loss on this day that will never be filled again. HBO broadcast his specials for three days, NBC aired the first episode of Saturday Night Live, and Larry King based an entire episode on a tribute to Carlin. He had final wishes to be cremated and to have his ashes spread at the lake where he went to summer camp as a child.
In conclusion, George Carlin was a door opener for many comedians over the years, pushing the right buttons to make people uncomfortable all over America, while still making them laugh at the same time. His legacy will live on forever for future generations to enjoy, and he will always be a go to for me when I am in the need of stomach hurting laughter!
Discography
1963: Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight
1967: Take-Offs and Put-Ons
1972: FM & AM
1972: Class Clown
1973: Occupation: Foole
1974: Toledo Window Box
1975: An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo
1977: On the Road
1981: A Place for My Stuff
1982: Carlin at Carnegie
1984: Carlin on Campus
1986: Playin' with Your Head
1988: What Am I Doing in New Jersey?
1990: Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
1992: Jammin' in New York
1996: Back in Town
1999: You Are All Diseased
2001: Complaints and Grievances
2002: George Carlin on Comedy
2006: Life Is Worth Losing
2008: It's Bad for Ya
Compilations
1978: Indecent Exposure: Some of the Best of George Carlin
1984: The George Carlin Collection
1992: Classic Gold
1999: The Little David Years
Filmography
1968 With Six You Get Eggroll
1976 Car Wash
1979 Americathon
1987 Outrageous Fortune
1989 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
1990 Working Tra$h
1991 Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
1991 The Prince of Tides
1995 Streets of Laredo
1998 Godzilla
1999 Dogma
2001 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
2003 Scary Movie 3
2004 Jersey Girl
2005 Tarzan ll
2005 The Aristocrats
2006 Cars Fillmore
2006 Mater and the Ghostlight
2007 Happily N'Ever After
Television
The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966)
That Girl (Guest appearance) (1966)
The Ed Sullivan Show (multiple appearances)
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (guest appearance) (1968)
What's My Line? (Guest Appearance) (1969)
The Flip Wilson Show (writer, performer) (1971–1973)
The Mike Douglas Show (Guest) (February 18, 1972)
Welcome Back, Kotter (Guest Appearance) (1978)
Saturday Night Live (Host, episodes 1 and 183) (1975 & 1984)
Justin Case (1988) TV movie
Shining Time Station (as Mr. Conductor/Narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine segments) (1991–1993; 1995)
Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales (as Mr. Conductor/Narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine segments) (1996)
Storytime with Thomas (as Mr. Conductor/Narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine segments) (1999)
The George Carlin Show (1994–1995) Fox
Streets of Laredo (1995)
The Simpsons (1998)
I'm Telling You for the Last Time
Inside the Actors Studio (2004)
Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales (as Fillmore) (archive footage) (2008)
HBO specials
On Location: George Carlin at USC 1977
George Carlin: Again! 1978
Carlin at Carnegie 1982
Carlin on Campus 1984
Playin' with Your Head 1986
What Am I Doing in New Jersey? 1988
Doin' It Again 1990
Jammin' in New York 1992
Back in Town 1996
George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy 1997
You Are All Diseased 1999
Complaints and Grievances 2001
Life Is Worth Losing 2005
All My Stuff 2007
It's Bad for Ya 2008
Written works
Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help 1984
Brain Droppings 1997
Napalm and Silly Putty 2001
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? 2004
Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George 2006
Watch My Language 2009 (Not yet released)
Last Words 2009
Audiobooks
Brain Droppings
Napalm and Silly Putty
More Napalm & Silly Putty
George Carlin Reads to You
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
No comments:
Post a Comment